


Legacies of the Lost Cities

by EmmaRushingThroughBooks



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-13 12:56:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21494662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmaRushingThroughBooks/pseuds/EmmaRushingThroughBooks
Summary: Many years have passed since the war against the Neverseen. Sophie Foster has settled down and even gotten married and had a daughter. Her daughter Estil, is far from normal though. She holds many characteristics from both her father Keefe and her mother, and this tends to get her into some trouble. As she goes through life as an Elvin teen while also being the daughter of considerably the most powerful elves in the Lost Cities, she slowly realizes that things are off. When her best friend is kidnapped but then can't remember anything about it, Estil knows that it's time to take action, and caries on the war begun by the generation before her, making new friends and enemies along the way. Her mind and heart pull her in different directions, but will the new moonlark be able to stop the Neverseen from rising again, or will she watch the world her parents nearly died to protect crumble before her?
Relationships: Sophie Foster/Keefe Sencen
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

Hello, my name is Estil Elizabeth Sencen. I am the daughter of Keefe and Sophie Sencen and am currently a level four at Foxfire Academy. At the present moment, I have manifested two abilities, though I have been told that I will certainly manifest more. Like my mother, I am a telepath, however, like my father, I am an empath. In short: I read people.

I have a lot of friends at Foxfire, including my best friend Lia, our friend Mearia, and a lot of other people. I was a pretty social person, and I'm often teased by my father about being a flirt because of the huge number of guys I'm friends with. It kind of annoys me, but it's my dad, what can I do?

I walked into my room and grabbed a prattle from the bowl I usually kept by my bed, but then my Imparter started to buzz. I picked it up and the face of my best friend Lia appeared. "Hey!" she chimed.

"Hello!" I responded, a cheery grin on my face. We were best friends, but it wasn't often that Lia actually hailed me. Typically she just reached out to me telepathically due to her also being a telepath.

"I was wondering if you'd wanna come over, my dad made some new automatic doors and I wanted to show them off!" she said.

I smiled even more and jumped up to grab. "Of course! I'll light leap on over!"

She narrowed her eyes. "Tell your parents! And did you take that elixir?"

I groaned and looked away from the Imparter. You see, I had something that my mom said humans called "mental illness". She said that I had "depression" and "anxiety" and that me being an empath and telepath certainly didn't help because it only enhanced the guilt I would get. Due to all of that fun stuff, she had decided that I needed to take a special elixir that would help protect my mind from a break. That had been a concern for my family since they realized that I had such a high empathy to match my mental illnesses. I was often tempted to read peoples' minds without their permission because of my insecurities but never did.

"You took it right?" Lia snapped.

I sighed and shook my head, causing my best friend to growl in anger. She started lecturing me about how I needed to take the elixir, and that she was going to tell my mom and dad. She said that I was at too high of a risk for a break on a daily basis to be stubborn about the elixirs. Lia always scolded me whenever I made dark jokes about me breaking or dying, but I knew that it was because she was scared that I actually would break; that I actually would die and officially become the first elf to commit suicide.

"Bye, Lia," I uttered.

"Wait! I'm not--" I turned the imparter off before she could finish. I changed out of my pajamas and into a nice tunic and trousers with a pair of nice chestnut boots. After that, I headed off to Lia's to check out the new doors her father had installed.

.....

I was sitting in a staircase at Foxfire, a bunch of my guy friends laughing with me as we hung out before class started.

Zaor laughed as our friend Cyran cracked a dark but funny joke. He was a tall boy with brown hair like milk chocolate, and his eyes were violet-blue. "Cyran!" he scolded playfully tossing a prattle wrapper at him.

I smiled fondly. Just the joy that I could detect from my friends was enough to make my whole day feel so much brighter. So much happier. That was the kind of nice thing about being an empath. Sometimes we could "borrow" people's emotions.

Cyran caught the wrapper and threw it away before joining me on the window ledge. He was a short boy that looked a year younger than he was. His hair was cherry red, and his eyes were the palest shade of blue possible. He glanced over at our other friend who was curled up by the window opposite me staring at his imparter with a smile of admiration. Kater was a medium height with chocolate brown skin and dark hair. His almost black hair was tipped with silver, like his mother's, and I had actually known him all my life. He was the son of one of my parents' old friends whom they had fought many battles beside.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Cyran asked.

"N-nothing!" he stammered, his change in mood very obvious to me.

"I disagree!" Cyran chanted before sneaking up to steal the imparter.

A mini scuffle broke out, and Cyran eventually walked away with Kater's imparter in hand. He smirked before looking at me smugly. "Look," he said. I glanced at the imparter and saw a picture of one of our fellow level four Foxfire students. I recognized her as Ora Flaxmir. Her auburn hair and blue eyes as bright as flames were not easy to forget. She was one of the few students at Foxfire who was a level four and was still yet to manifest, or at least that's what the government thought. I was actually very well acquainted with Ora due to the fact that she relied on the Black Swan, a group that my parents help run, in order to be trained in her rare and illegal talent. She was a pyrokinetic.

I smirked at Kater. "Has someone caught feelings for Miss Flaxmir?" I didn't really have to ask, his emotions told me everything I needed to know, but I thought it would just be more fun if I asked.

Kater frowned. "Shut up, Estil!"

I smirked even more. You see, Kater was a hydrokinetic, which only made his crush on Ora cuter, even if he didn't know that she wasn't talentless. I had never seen Kater with the Black Swan, nor had he spoke a word of them that would suggest he was a part of them so I assumed he wasn't.

Zaor placed a hand on Kater's shoulder. "Easy there, no need to get all mad at us. We're your friends, and as such we will be your perfect wingmen!"

I coughed.

Zaor chuckled. "And woman,"

I smirked.

Kater sighed. Zaor was a beguiler, meaning that his voice was enchanting and calming, so he was typically used to having to calm us down.

That leaves Cyran. He's a technopath.

The bell rang and we all headed to our first classes. "Elvin history here I come," I murmured with a faint smile. "Time to be questioned about my parents' war some more,"

.....

"So what's the plan?" I asked Zaor and Cyran as we gazed at Ora Flaxmir from a distance.

"Guys, please, could you n--" Kater tried to say before I pressed a finger to his lips. His emotions included panic, fear, but also a bit of hope. Touching him only made them so much more obvious to me which sent an electric shock through my body, but I didn't flinch. 

It's hard being a highly sensitive empath, okay?

"Ah, ah, ah, my water bending friend! You cannot stop us, and believe it or not we're not gonna ruin this for you!" I said kind of sassily.

Kater sighed and rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

"I think I have an idea," Cyran uttered.

"Oooooo!" I chimed, leaning in closer. Cyran whispered a horrible plan into my ear, and I cringed. "No! I'm actually trying to help Kater!"

After a moment of silence, Zaor was about to suggest something, but I cut him off. "I've got a plan," I said.

"What--" the boys tried to ask, but before they could finish I walked away over towards Ora.

Kater surprisingly looked at me with a gaze of trust, as if he knew that I would actually be a good wing woman.

I walked up to Ora and smiled brilliantly at her. "Hey!" I said, sitting down next to her as she studied.

"Hey," she grinned back. Her emotions shifted from calm but kind of bored to excited. Probably because she expected me to share some Black Swan news with her telepathically. I felt kinda bad about getting her hopes down when I started my plan for Operation Kora (Kater and Ora).

"So I was wondering if you'd wanna join me and a few of my friends tomorrow to my grandparents'," I suggested. "I know you like alicorns, and I was thinking you'd like to see  
them!"

Ora's mood dampened slightly but then hopped back to life when she realized that I was inviting her to come and play with four sparkly alicorns. "I'd love too!" she cried.

I smiled. "Brilliant! I'll hail you to tell you the time,"

I walked back over to my friends with a grin on my face and winked at Kater.

"You sly, sneaky, little--" Kater tried to say before I telepathically transmitted a message to him.

_You two will be having a date that I'll be third-wheeling and I will constantly leave you alone if you're comfortable with that, that is._ I told him. _If you want to telepathically reply I need permission to read your mind as you know._

Kater nodded slightly and I peered into his mind. _Thank you, Estil. I trust you._

_Thanks._ I responded.


	2. Chapter 2

I was hanging out with Cyran, the two of us hanging out at the top of a tree in the gardens of my home, Havenglen. We weren't talking about anything in particular, just hanging out and being dorky teenagers while throwing prattle wrappers at each other and bragging about the pins we get out of them. Conversation really turned serious though when my next prattle contained a pin of the animal most commonly associated with my family.

"Is that a moonlark?" Cyran asked, his red bangs swiping over his eyes as he looked at the pin in my hand.

I nodded.

Cyran slowly grabbed the pin from me and pinned it to my favorite ice blue cape right next to my family crest. "Mini moonlark," he chuckled with a grin.

The use of the nickname made me crack a smile and we laughed for a minute or so. I looked down to the pond at the roots of the tree Cyran and I were in. I could see Cyran and mine's reflection. I had striking ice blue eyes and long blonde hair that was wild in a classy but at the same time casual sort of way, and it always shocked my father the fact that I never did anything to it. Cyran was sitting close to me, but a friendly sort of close. The two of us were great friends, and many people would mistake that friendship for romance, but the two of us had wordlessly promised to never threaten our friendship like that. However, that still didn't stop the rumors.

"Estil!" my dad called from the huge castle we called a house.

"Coming!" I called. With a glance to Cyran, I clumsily walked along a bare branch before saluting him and falling backwards towards the ground. The feeling of free fall was so refreshing. The rush of adrenaline making me smile. The uncertainty made my heart swell with joy but at the same time lecture me for my recklessness. Just before I would've landed on the ground beside the pond, I caught myself, levitating gracefully criss-cross applesauce towards my dad.

Cyran did the same thing as me, but with less pazazz and more laziness.

My father, Keefe Sencen, laughed. "I'm raising you well, Estil, just, don't tell your mother,"

I laughed too and wrapped an arm playfully around Cyran's shoulders, levitating so that I was the same height as him.

"Hey! Cheater!" my dad complained with a grin, pressing his palm to the top of my head as if he could actually break my powerful levitation skills and get my feet back on the ground. "You cheating little shorty!"

I stuck out my tongue at him and Cyran laughed. "She is short, but she has to show your confidence somehow, Keefe," he said.

My dad nodded in agreement. "Anyways, Estil, your imparter has been going off since midmorning,"

My eyes widened. "Oh gosh, please tell me Lia's not trying to lecture me about--"

"We will discuss your elixirs later, but will you please just answer Zaor?" my mom asked as she came out from around the corner. Her tone had initially been serious, but it quickly switched to humorous. She handed me my imparter and sure enough, Zaor appeared on the screen.

"Estil!" he shrieked. "So sorry, but I really need you to come over right now! I'm having some family over and--well, let's just say you're really the only person who can help me!"

I was flabbergasted. "Um, okay, I-I'll light leap right on over," I looked at Cyran, then back at Zaor. "Cyran's with me. Can he come too?"

Zaor shook his head. "Sorry buddy, but Estil only,"

"Oh, I see how it is!" Cyran teased.

"I'm on my way," I told Zaor when my parents nodded approvingly.

"Okay,' Zaor replied. "Dress well, like, in a dress..." He winced at the last part as if expecting me to punch him through the silver device.

I stared at Zaor ready to complain, but his look of desperation stopped me. "Fine. Give me twenty minutes,"

"Alright, Estil. Thank you so much," he replied.

.....

I light leaped to Zaor's house in a silvery-white dress, black leggings, brown knee-high boots, and the same cape that I had worn with Cyran. Knocking on my friend's door, I realized how loud his house was at the time. Both Zaor's parents were very calm and laid back; very quiet and intellectual individuals. A beguiler and a conjurer.

Shortly after my knocking Zaor answered the door. He was in a violet tunic that appeared brand new, and it really brought out the blue in his eyes. His cape was silver as if he had known that it would match me. He looked very nice though. "Thanks for coming under such short notice," he greeted in his calming voice, but his emotions were all over the place. My own heartbeat spiked when I realized that one of them was "fear".

"Not a problem," I responded, on edge. "So mind filling me in?"

Zaor's emotional status seemed to be better now that I was there, but they were still not normal for him. "My aunt, uncle, and cousin are coming over for dinner,"

"_What?_" I shrieked. "Your _uncle_?"

Zaor looked over his shoulder down at me. He seemed to have expected this reaction. "Yup. The only uncle I have is coming over for dinner with his wife and son,"

"But," I began, "wasn't he, you know, banished?"

Zaor nodded, looking straight forward as we walked through the hall.

"Then why is he in the Lost Cities?" I questioned.

My friend sighed. "There have been some special circumstances and he has been accepted to enter a new reform program started by Linh Song, so we invited them over for dinner,"

"You haven't spoken to any of them in seven years, and now you invite them, _including the psycho uncle_, over for dinner?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yup. I hope Almar hasn't changed much," he said, his tone saturated with sorrow. It gave away more than one would assume. Almar was his cousin whom he got along great with when they were young, however, after the banishment they hadn't seen each other.

I instinctively placed a tender hand on my friend's shoulder to comfort him, even though this made my empathy so much stronger. His emotions were very strong and kind of altering my mood a bit, but I didn't care. I just wanted Zaor to understand that I was with him for this.

"Anything else I need to know?" I asked in a soothing voice.

"Mhm," Zaor mumbled. "Do you remember how my aunt and uncle worked with the match system?"

"Yeah,"

"Well, they would lecture me and my parents about how important it would be for me to start thinking about the match and must at least have someone who I wouldn't mind being on my list..." Zaor admitted, embarrassment emanating from him.

My cheeks flushed red as I realized that Zaor had said he wouldn't mind me being on his list. I pushed the thought out of my head, burying it deep into my subconscious where I kept my own emotions and thoughts that I ignored to the best of my ability.

Zaor and I walked into the dining room where his parents were scrambling around setting up. I had never seen them so flustered. Zaor's mother, a beguiler, was racing around setting up the table, while Zaor's father, a conjurer, was getting just about everything else ready.

"Hello, Estil," Zaor's father, Dalyor, greeted. He was a tall man with the same purple-blue eyes as his son but had caramel hair.

"Estil, darling, what a pleasure!" Zaor's mother, Idril, said in her faint accent when she noticed my presence. Her hair was like milk chocolate, and her eyes matched the sky.

"Hello," I responded with a friendly wave. I usually loved the emotions of this house. They were always so positive and constructive, but now they felt panicked and almost tense. "How can I help?" I asked.

Dalyor was about to respond when there was another knock on the door. He shared a glance with his wife before going to answer it.

Idril smiled reassuringly at me and grabbed my hand. She always did this because she knew how empaths worked and knew that the slight calmness of her would help. Her sister was one after all. "Have a seat at the table with Zaor. You have absolutely no reason to fear Neldor, or anything else. Be yourself and just support Zaor, please," she whispered soothingly before kissing my forehead and whisking off to follow her husband.

I nodded with a reassuring grin and took a seat beside my friend. He sat to the left of where his father would sit, and I sat to his left.

_I know how nervous you are,_ I transmitted to him, _I don't have to be an empath to understand that, but there's no reason to be. This is family, Zaor. Previously banished or not, if they try anything I could always just destroy them._

Zaor snorted and squeezed my hand to signal that I could open my mind to his thoughts. _Thanks, Es,_ he replied. _You're the best female friend a guy could ask for._

The doors to the dining room abruptly opened to reveal five elves in the hall. They included Zaor's mother and father, his aunt, his uncle, and his cousin. Zaor's Aunt Yezmi was a grim-looking woman with shallow features, intense eyes and blonde hair tied into a bun so tight that it could easily cut off blood circulation had it not been tied to her hair. Yezmi's husband had skin tanned from his time in banishment. His eyes matched his brother's and nephew's, but they were so much colder. It was hard to even picture the ginger-haired elf with evil eyes smiling, let alone being pleasant.

In between the two was a boy around mine and Zaor's age. The boy was a little taller than Zaor. He had blonde hair that was wild and crazy in what could be considered by others a handsome way. In my opinion, it just looked like hair spiked in random directions to look like a perfectly calculated mess, but it didn't look bad. Almar's eyes were the same as Zaor's; a deep blue with flecks of purple around the pupil.

The entire family had an aura about them, each person a different emotion.

Pride and smug joy came from Yezmi, which I found interesting considering the fact that she was scowling.

Neldor emanated a thirst for vengeance that made me groan at the fact that since my grandmother Oralie had left the council to make things right with my mother, the council now had no empath to read the emotions of people.

When I focused on Almar, I recognized how depressing his energy was. He appeared confident and maybe even happy, which I found myself relating with, but inside he was sad, and even a little scared. Not of the situation. Not of seeing his cousin again. He was scared of his father. This made me wonder what on earth Neldor had done to make his son so afraid of him.


	3. Chapter 3

"It's been such a long time, Brother!" Dalyor said merrily, but I could sense the fake joy in his tone. He hated seeing his brother again.

Neldor sneered questioningly as if knowing that his brother wasn't happy to see him. He glanced at his wife and son. "It has, hasn't it, Dalyor," he paused and looked at Zaor. "My, Zaor, you've grown almost as much as my own Almar!" Neldor noted, clapping his hand to his son's back. The contact sent a wave of terror my way from Almar. "Isn't that right, Yezmi?"

The grim woman simply nodded, her thin fingers elegantly touching the bright gem of her registry pendant.

"I see you still are not found of speech, Yezmi," Idril commented, her voice sounding like a half-hearted symphony.

"My wife, unlike that foul councilor Noland, has some shame as far as her voice goes," Neldor hissed. "She carries a burden a pathetic Beguillor could never understand!"

Idril's heart flooded with shock, and her husband held the wrath of a human warlord, but didn't show it.

"Now, my wife and son's ability holds great power as well as stability," Dalyor insisted.

"Why don't we just sit down and begin our dinner?" Zaor pleaded emotion thick behind the power he put into the words.

"Yes," Almar agreed, his voice slightly higher pitched than Zaor's. He walked over to us and took the chair next to me. The skin of my finger skimmed the flesh on the back of Almar's hand. His emotions spiked to the point that I felt an electric shock go through my body. Deep down underneath all the fear and sorrow though, I detected a faint glimmer of joy. Joy to see family members that he missed terribly. And hope. Hope that his father would change.

Neldor and Yezmi sat down, the red-haired elf sitting directly across from me. "Who's this lovely young woman?" he asked, his eyes darting between Zaor and I.

I bit my lip nervously. I was about to explain my identity when Zaor grabbed my wrist and began to speak. "This is Estil," he explained, hooking something gently onto my wrist before lacing our fingers together. "and we're hopefuls," He held up our hands.

My face flushed red.

What. Was. He. Doing?

I became even redder when I realized that Zaor's words were not entirely a lie, at least to him. I looked at what was now attatched to my wrist only to find that Zaor had one identical to it.

They were crush cuffs.

_Zaor Gormer + Estil Sencen_

I was tempted to rip my hand right out of Zaor's but didn't. I had to help him emotionally, and if this was what it took then so be it. I tightened my grip on his hand to seem happy about it. "Yup," I lied.

_You didn't tell me about this!_ I transmitted to Zaor.

_I know_ he replied.

_This is all just for affect though, right?_

Zaor didn't say anything, but his emotional state plummeted.

_Zaor? These crush cuffs are fake, right?_ I asked frantically.

After a long silence, he replied. _No. They're real, Es. I've been planning on giving them to you for a couple of weeks now--_

"Why are you staring at the cuffs?" Almar asked with a gentle eyebrow raise.

I looked over my shoulder at him. "Oh! Uh--Zaor just recently got them for us, so they are still really new to me and--"

Almar waved his hands and made a bunch of noises. "I've heard enough,"

"So," Neldor began, "hopefuls..."

Zaor nodded, pressing a kiss to my cheek that I wished was only in a friendly way. "Yup. We really hope to find each other's names on our lists,"

I faked a smile and nodded, my chest hurting from the lie.

"Well then," Neldor said, "do you think you'll be on each other's lists? What is Miss--" he left a gap for my last name that was never filled. "--Estil's ability?"

"I do think we'll be on each other's lists," Zaor said, looking at me fondly. I held back a nervous laugh. Little did Zaor know that I was actually unmatchable because my mother was unmatchable. "And as far as her abilities go, Es has two!"

Neldor and his family stared at me like I was a rare creature, which I guess I really was.

"I'm a telepath and empath," I said shyly.

"Hmm," Neldor hummed. "She seems a bit too powerful for a simple Beguillor,"

"Zaor's ability is just as powerful as both of mine," I assured him, resting my head on Zaor's shoulder.

Neldor narrowed his eyes but relented. "I suppose. At least he's not a failure like my own son whom despite being descended from two highly powerful families cannot even manifest a single ability!'

The glare he was giving his son said it all. Almar's emotions did something strange though. He felt the same. No shame. No embarrassment. If anything, maybe pride.

I was tempted to shout at Neldor. To scold him for saying something like that about his son!

_Zaor, I can't do this,_ I transmitted. _We have to tell the truth!_

He turned his head and looked at me pleadingly, his emotions saying more than words could.

Dalyor snapped his fingers and food appeared before us. However, I paid it no mind and stood up, grabbing Zaor by the arm. "We need a moment,"

I dragged my friend into the hall of his home, closing the doors behind us for privacy. My eyes met Zaor's, but I had to look away. I was struggling to tell the difference between Zaor's emotions and my own.

"Hopefuls!" I shrieked. "You went that far!"

Zaor looked at me apologetically. "Estil, I-I wanted to give them to you anyways," he grabbed my hands. "I really like you. Love you even. I have for a while. I thought you felt the same," he looked into my eyes, "but I guess I was wrong,"

I stared at him with clenched teeth and misty eyes. "Yeah," I said, "you were,"

.....

I sighed and slid down the wall. "And so I agreed to keep up the act until we can break it off in a way that seems natural,"

Mearia shook her head, clicking her tongue in thought. "That is quite a pickle," she said. Her long brown hair was tied back into elegant braids all aside from her two streaks of silver in the front of her hair. She had silvery-blue eyes and was wearing a purple dress and black boots that made her look like the perfect example of a warrior princess.

"I feel terrible," I admitted, pulling my legs to my chest.

"Have you spoken to him since--you know?" Mearia asked.

I shook my head. "I left as soon as dinner ended, saying that my parents needed me back home,"

"Cyran's gonna get mad," she chuckled.

"Yup, he's really protective over me,"

"No. I mean he'll be jealous,"

I shoved her shoulder. "You know he's essentially my brother!"

She laughed but said nothing other than: "Can we go to Slurps and Burps?"


End file.
